Brand Leadership: Winning the Long Game

Earlier this year, Brigade Group emerged as the No. 1 Brand leader of Indian real estate for the first time. Trust building is core to Brigade’s brand equity, reflected in timely delivery, transparent processes, and a strong emphasis on customer service across the ownership lifecycle. The key barometer of the brand worth in the sector is most often the residential segment. Having topped the residential category last year as well, the recognition of being the leader in the overall category was a testament to the brand perception and delivery track record of the Group.

In the recent times, there have been some significant steps taken by the organization to shape the direction of the brand strategy further.

Our offering of products is now more attuned to exclusive living experiences. We had 4 launches in the past year in our Signature portfolio: Brigade Icon in Chennai, Brigade Gateway in Hyderabad, Brigade Insignia and Brigade Avalon in Bengaluru. In the years preceding that, a large percentage of our volumes were from the mid-premium segment but considering the changing consumer needs, we felt this was the appropriate time to re-enter this segment. Brigade had announced its plans to be a net zero organization by 2045. It’s an

audacious goal for an organization of our scale and the breadth of different business verticals. Sustainability will be a key consideration for our upcoming projects and we launched India’s first true net zero project (Brigade Citrine) in early 2025 with more such projects to follow. The social impact of sustaining has a deeper emotional connect which goes beyond pure product features. This goal will involve meticulous planning and execution from our Design and Construction teams, which comes at an additional cost. It also becomes the responsibility of the customer-facing teams to spread awareness of the reasoning behind such forward-looking initiatives.

After 18 successful editions of Brigade Showcase in Bengaluru, we hosted it in Chennai for the very first time. This move was in sync with our focussed efforts towards Chennai as a growth market for us. We also had the Dubai and Singapore editions of Brigade Showcase in the previous quarter to get closer to our consumers in these markets where we operate satellite offices. In the coming quarter, we also plan to take our annual flagship event to Hyderabad city for the very first time.

Physical events like Brigade Showcase are not just sales platforms, but a more strategic interface for brand building, market expansion, stakeholder engagement, and organizational alignment. In an increasingly digital world, these in-person experiences remain irreplaceable for creating trust, excitement, and lasting impact.

Post COVID, the sales cycles had reduced, and we were selling out projects within one-third of the time that it took to construct them. There are some early signs of headwinds in the category, and we expect the ‘art of sustenance’ to come back in the coming times. Companies will have to invest steadily in their brand stories and find the right channels to communicate the same. It will be equally important to focus on getting the launch strategy right and in line with the expectations (achieving numbers vis-à-vis a creative positioning) and a lot more rigour will have to be put in by the top players who are jostling in the same space (sometimes quite literally).

We have also seen some sharp trends in the media mix. While digital spends have been on the rise across sectors, the usage of influencers (mostly mid to high tier / local celebrities) to amplify awareness has been tried across our markets and also for our larger umbrella campaigns. While the restrictions on hoardings still remain in the cities of Bengaluru and Chennai, the increasing count of digital screens in key CBD areas is helping brands tell their stories better. Airport presence is a key aspect in the real estate space and at Brigade, we have consistently been present across our 3 key markets. We recently tied up for the 4th round of barter arrangement with the BCCL Group (Times of India) since we foresee significant investments in print advertising in the coming years. Our teams have also built deeper relationships with Google and Meta, and by strengthening the data framework with our CDP Partners have built an ecosystem where a large part of our performance campaigns are now being run by our in-house digital marketing team.

As the market trends keep evolving, getting a pulse of the consumer becomes more important than ever. We have a process in place of collecting feedback across the customer lifecycle and are working towards making it more intuitive and easier to participate in. Wherever needed, we have also commissioned research for getting deeper insight into focussed initiatives and markets.

We are witnessing more and more new entrants coming into the space in our home turf of Bengaluru. At the same time, we are a challenger brand in the cities of Chennai & Hyderabad. The strategies for markets have to be very distinct and as a team we are working towards showcasing our offerings with lifestyle narratives that align with the specific requirement of that portfolio. These continued efforts should help keep the brand salient with urban, upwardly mobile consumers.